St. Jude Parish in New Lenox will host an exhibit this weekend on eucharistic miracles, and the event has taken on new meaning because the teen who created it in the early 2000s has moved one step closer to being declared a saint.
Carlo Acutis, from Milan, Italy, died from leukemia in 2006. He was a self-taught website designer who documented eucharistic miracles and was known as the “patron saint of the internet.”
“I have been kind of watching the reports of things going on. He was beatified as a blessed back in 2020,” said Jennifer Lebhardt, coordinator of junior high youth formation at St. Jude Parish and co-director of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, who helped bring the exhibit to the parish. “That means there are miracles associated with him after he had passed.”
Acutis was a teen when he began a database that collected “all this information of church-approved miracles” Lebhardt said. He was diagnosed with leukemia and died fairly quickly afterward.
“He was very devout and faithful to the church and eucharist and would teach kids about it,” Lebhardt said. “After he passed, there were a lot of things that happened that raised eyebrows. I’ve heard of these eucharistic miracles and they’ve always fascinated me.”
The Vatican Eucharistic Miracles Photographic Exhibit recounts 158 well-documented miraculous occurrences from 22 countries on 2-by-3 laminated posters. It can be viewed from 4-8 p.m. on June 1, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on June 2, and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 3. The exhibit, in St. Jude’s Franciscan Hall at 241 W. Second Ave., is free, although donations will be taken in baskets and via a QR code.
“Each table will be double-sided to kind of snake through and see both sides of the tables, because there are over 150 miracles to bring forward,” Lebhardt said.
Acutis was beatified by Pope Francis in 2020 after the first miracle was attributed to him. The pope met May 23, 2024, with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, and recognized a second miracle attributed to Acutis, according to Vatican News.
That miracle, which happened in 2022, involved the recovery of a young woman named Valeria Valverde who suffered a traumatic brain injury and had a low chance of survival. Her mother, Liliana Valverde, arrived from Costa Rica July 8 on a pilgrimage to Acutis’ tomb in Assisi, Italy, to pray for her daughter. That day, Valeria began to breathe spontaneously, and July 18, a CAT scan “proved that her hemorrhage had disappeared,” according to Vatican News.
For Acutis’ first miracle, approved by the pope in 2020, a 4-year-old boy from Brazil was healed from a rare pancreatic disease in 2013. After a local priest received a relic from Acutis’ mother and led a prayer service for healing, and the boy himself prayed before a picture of Acutis, the boy’s condition improved immediately, CatholicVote reported.
Lebhardt said the miracles Acutis presented in the exhibit typically related to the host — a small, flat wafer — provided during the Eucharist, also known as Communion.
“Every miracle is a little different. Sometimes it’s a host that presents blood and when the scientists examine it, they find that the blood is coming from the inside of the host and not the outside, so they can tell it’s not a drop that has dropped on it,” she said.
“The scientists find that it is heart tissue. They find living white blood cells. They find that it’s the same blood type every time — the A-B blood type that is more often found in the Middle Eastern areas. It’s more rare than the other types we see.”
She called the process “quite fascinating” and said one of the most famous eucharistic miracles happened in 750 in Lanciano, Italy, where it’s still on display.
“They broke it out in the 1970s and had it researched. That’s when they found out it was still living blood cells,” she said.
The Rev. Ray Flores at St. Jude is also in awe of the miracles.
“They are pretty incredible. I can’t begin to understand it myself — I’m not that smart,” Flores said. “I don’t understand it. That’s part of the mystery of the faith that we profess.”
He said the importance of the Eucharist to Catholics can’t be understated.
“It’s food for our journey. In Latin it’s ‘vaticum.’ If a person can receive their last Communion when they pass from this world to the next, it will system them for this journey,” he said. “But for those of us who are earthbound, it’s sustenance for what we are. It’s substantive food and transforms into God.
“The miracle is that we can consume God and become godlike. I think we’re most godlike when we’re in relationship with each other,” Flores said. “That’s ultimately what Jesus said, you should love your neighbor and God.”
Flores said the parish started a series last year to understand eucharistic miracles and he went on a pilgrimage to Assisi, where Acutis’ body is housed.
“We could visit his remains and pray there,” he said.
A friend of his in Chicago told him St. Jude had an opportunity to learn from the exhibit.
“It happened coincidentally, but we don’t believe in that. It’s a divine order. But it was amazing how it came together so quickly,” Flores said.
He hopes the exhibit will honor Acutis’ life and legacy but more importantly will “help people understand the presence of God in the Eucharist and how accessible that is to us as Catholics,” Flores said.
Flores said having a saint who’s a millennial is important.
“I think he can speak to this generation about so many things that don’t make sense … what he was learning and his relationship with God. That’s the most important gift he has given the church,” he said.
The exhibit could be considered part of a bigger movement, Lebhardt said, mentioning the “eucharistic revival” begun by U.S. Catholic bishops.
She said people in the parish are talking about the exhibit and she hopes it will bring a “lightbulb” moment and increase in belief.
“I hope they are empowered to bring Christ to other people,” she said. “To bring other people to this awakening and realize that no matter what they are going through, our Lord loves them personally and he invites them to come to them.”
Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
